Hi! Thank you for accepting our invitation to speak a little about your experience and to share it with other students looking for internships. Let’s start with the introductions!
Ana: Hi! My name is Ana Leite, I’m from Celorico de Basto and I came to Porto to get a degree in Accounting and Administration at ISCAP. I’m currently finishing a Master’s Degree in Finance and Taxation at FEP and interning in Infraspeak’s finance department.
Catarina: I’m Catarina, I’m from Porto and I’m in the last year of ISCAP’s Human Resources degree. At the moment I’m part of Infraspeak’s People & Culture team.
Mafalda: My name is Mafalda, I’m 22 and I’m from Esposende. I have a degree in Economics from FEP and I’m currently finishing my Master’s Degree in Economics and Business Management, also at FEP. I’m interning at Infraspeak and I’m part of the finance department, just like Ana.
Now that you’ve been a part of Infraspeak’s family for a while, how are you finding the experience? Why did you choose Infraspeak and what should we keep in mind when considering potential internships?
Mafalda: Speaking a little about Infraspeak, I think it stood out for its transparency, the level of care and its amazing company culture. People would talk to me openly from the very first moment as if it was a friendly chat at the pub. I was positively surprised. I think that made me feel at ease which allowed me to not only ask questions, but to gain the flexibility to develop my skills without any restraints.
Catarina: In my case, I first heard of Infraspeak through someone I knew. At my first interview, I thought it was too good to be true (laughs) because in my degree, we’re supposed to intern for 3 years and the first year was particularly difficult. It got to a point where I was waiting for an interview with 3rd year students in the same room. We felt those companies were simply looking for interns to help around the office or just to watch. As soon as I got to Infraspeak, I realised they had different projects for me and a vision of what work should be that was very compatible with my own. It didn’t take long for me to see I had made the right choice and that this experience would be different. Some people want to intern all 3 years in the same place but, right off the bat, I chose to discover 3 different places in 3 different years. It was great to finish my last year in the place I felt the most comfortable at.
Ana: It didn’t take long to realise that the overall environment at Infraspeak is much different than other companies. It’s hard to find this kind of culture and solidarity between team members. You really feel anyone you talk to wants to legitimately help you. I noticed that the very first time I spoke with People & Culture and with Luís (Luís Machado, Head of Finance). Another factor that made me choose Infraspeak was the possibility to truly develop our skills and expand our knowledge instead of simply performing menial tasks. I’m extremely happy with how much I was able to learn and with all the theory I got to apply in practical tasks.
Ana Leite, Finance Intern at Infraspeak
When it comes to the challenge of finding an internship, what are, in your opinion, the most important things a student should do, not only to find a suitable vacancy but also to bring value to his or her future career.
Ana: I think one of the most important things is to learn anything you can about the company and its context. There are many companies that make you think “wow, this is my dream job” but sometimes, it turns out to be quite the opposite. The starting point is to always know exactly where you might be heading, what’s it like in the day-to-day and only then, analyse the offer in detail.
Catarina: It’s extremely important to connect as much as you can, with as many people as you can. In my first year of university, I didn’t care so much about how it was going to be when I started working. We’d have speakers attend some of our classes but I’d never cared enough to connect or contact them. The truth is, these days, I always try to get some sort of information like the name or LinkedIn of the people I meet so that in the future, I can perhaps ask for some advice. When it comes to Infraspeak, a company made a presentation in one of my classes, which led me to a person who spoke to me about other companies, which, in turn, got me in touch with one of my sister’s university colleagues that made a story on Instagram with a beer! This is how I knew Infraspeak was pretty relaxed, even before my first interview. If you can’t get information on where you’re going, you’ll never be able to truly grasp how it to work there.
Mafalda: I feel it’s very important to speak to many different people in order to find honest and transparent opinions about how the company or its day-to-day is. Sometimes you’ll find it’s exactly like the interviewer described but sometimes, it’s completely different. I think people shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions in order to understand how much autonomy you’ll have or if you’ll just be “filling the gaps”. The goal should always be to take part in projects, have the space to make mistakes, grow and help the company develop.
Catarina Coelho, People & Culture Intern at Infraspeak
Did the experience match your expectations? What surprised you the most about the daily life at Infraspeak?
Catarina: The only thing that didn’t match my expectations was not being able to take part in some of the company’s traditions, like Beer Celebrations. I was hoping things would slow down enough for me to be able to enjoy them. I feel I was granted all the autonomy and flexibility offered to me during my interview. Maybe even more! With time, I understood I could perform tasks in my own time, my own way, without interfering with others and that was great. To me, that didn’t exist. There’s still a stigma regarding flexible working. Companies position themselves that way but reality is much different. The fact that I was part of a project, that I could take it until its completion and then individually present it was something I really enjoyed taking part in. When it comes to human resources we need to be well aligned with the company’s value proposition. Sometimes, if we’re not often at the office or in touch with people we don’t get to understand what our target wants or needs. The only negative aspect was not being able to remain in constant contact with the team so I could fit in at 100%, due to lack of time and classes.
Mafalda: Me and Ana joined Infraspeak at the beginning of the pandemic so we’ve mostly worked remotely. When it comes to our internship , that’s the only part that fell short since we weren’t able to experience the company culture in its entirety, or attend social events. We missed out on some bonding with our colleagues and social gatherings like the beer celebrations, but it wasn’t really anyone’s fault. Overall, the experience far exceeded our expectations and the autonomy we were given added a lot more value than I had anticipated when we first got Infraspeak’s offer. We were able to get involved in projects that allowed us to further our skills and autonomy and that was extremely gratifying. We felt we contributed towards the company’s success.
Mafalda Torres, Finance Intern at Infraspeak
Mafalda and Ana joined the Finance team while Catarina worked for People & Culture. How easy was it to be a part of those teams? Especially considering COVID-19 and all the remote work.
Ana: It wasn’t that difficult to adapt. Even when we worked remotely, we felt close to each other because every time we had a question or needed help, someone was there for you. All you needed was to type a message, or make a call. I thought having autonomy in these circumstances would be hard but it was much easier than I had expected.
Mafalda: Very easy! I really feel like the whole team was there for us every step of the way. Luís was also always available for questions and joining the team at the same time as Ana made it easier to share what we were learning and clarify any doubts. At the start I thought remote working could get tricky. You learn faster when you spend your day with other people. However, even from home, we kept our focus and the communication with the team through daily meetings and syncs.
Catarina: It was good. Great, in fact! It was extremely easy to talk to the other people in the team. Sometimes I’d send a message to Sofia (Sofia Matos, Head of People & Culture) and she’d reply with “Hi, Cats!” and I’d always find that a little odd but I started replying with “Hi, Sofy!” and that made me feel at home. We don’t have to pretend we’re someone else, when we’re at work. The only thing I found a little harder, in terms of communication, was the fact that People & Culture was always extremely busy which would make me a little hesitant as I didn’t want to interrupt their work. However, it was always extremely gratifying. It’s also important to feel like I can rely on the team to evaluate my work and exchange opinions in a positive way. It might seem like a small detail but hearing “I’d do this slightly differently, how about this?” helps us grow and gives us room to process the feedback we’re getting. Some companies will “cut your wings” right off the bat and go “That’s wrong, do it again”. I didn’t feel that at all at Infraspeak.
Looking back at your experience here, if there’s ever an open position for you in the future, would you consider being a part of Infraspeak’s team?
Everyone: Yes!
With everything you learned during your internship, do you consider yourselves more capable and autonomous than when it started?
Mafalda: I think we grew at both personal and professional levels and had the chance to meet many different people working in many different things. It’s something we’ll definitely take home with us from this internship. The best thing was the constant search and sharing of knowledge and being able to speak to everyone as if we were with just another group of friends. The projects and tasks we ended up doing also gave us experience and autonomy and some of the challenges took us out of our comfort zones. It was an extremely rich experience!
Ana Leite, Catarina Coelho and Mafalda Torres were Infraspeak’s Finance and People & Culture interns. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us and we hope to see you soon! As always, Infraspeak is hiring! Check Infraspeak’s career page and apply today!
